TIME
TIME
581
two ajres (the present and the one to come) are successive. But this is not the case with all the a'ons of the series. ' Unto the ages of the ages' (Ws Toi)s aiiivas tCip aliivuv) suggests the inequality of some of the ages and the inclusion of the briefer within the longer ones (cf. G. B. Winer, Grammar of NT Greek", VA\\n\mri;\\, ISSl', p. Sti).
4. The era.— The NT writings contain no allu- sion to a uniform era. Undutibtedly each people of the period u.sed its own era. The Konians dated events and documents from the founding of the city (A.u.C. = 752 B.C.); the Greeks went back to the beginning of the Olympiads ( = 776 B.C.). The Jews, owing to the frequent vicissitudes experienced in their history, had changed their method of registering the relative dates of events. The Books of Kings and Chronicles use the very familiar device of synchronizing the regnal years of the kings of Israel and Judah respectively. Occasion- ally the deliverance from bondage in Egypt is used as a starting-point (1 K 6'), or the buihling of the Temple of Solomon (!)'"), or the beginning of the Babylonian E.xile ( Ezk 33=' 40'). The later Jewish usage settled down to reckoning all events from the creation of the world, which was supposed to have occurred in the 3761st year before the birth of Christ. But this computation is of post-Christian origin. In the Apocrypha, which may be regarded as the fair index of usage at the time, the Seleiicid Era is frequently referred to. This was computed from the year of the seizure of Palestine by Seleucus after the battle of Gaza. It was also called the Era of the Greeks or Syro-Macedonians and (incorrectly) the Era of Alexander. By the Jews it was called the Year of Contracts (farik Dilkarnaim) from the fact that it was obligatory in the case of all legal documents. The beginning of the era was dated in the first year of the 117th Olympiad or 442 A.u.C, hence 312 B.C. (1 Mac 1" 6"'' 7'? 10'). The Era of Simon (1 Mac 13" 142^) was proposed, but never extensively adopted.
In the New Testament events are associated with the reigns of contemporary rulers (' In the days of Herod the king'[Mt 2', Lk 1^], 'in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaja,' etc. [Lk 3'- - ; cf. also Ac 11* 12']). But in all cases the dating is approximate and intended to serve practical rather than scientific ends. With the exception of Lk 3'- ^, all such dating of events seems not to be intentionally chronological (cf. A. Harnack, The Acts of the Apostles, London, 1909, p. 6f.).
The method of Matthew (1") of giving a general intimation of date by the expedient of 'genera- tions' is unique and highly artificial.
5. The year. — It has always been difficult to adjust with precision the limits of the year. In all the ettbrts to make the adjustment first the natural return of the seasons with their agri- cultural features calls for a definition that will harmonize with the apparent revolution of the sun around the earth in 365 -I- days, liut the fact that this period a])proxinuitely coincides with twelve lunar periods has tempted many peoples to settle down to a year of 354 days. In the Apostolic Age the problem had not as yet been solved fully. The usage of Palestine, inherited from early Canaanite and Babylonian antecedents, was still prevalent. The year began with the 1st of Nisan and was constituted of twelve montlis, with the periodical intercalation of a thirteenth to equalize ditt'erenee. Intercalation was common all over the world, but the method of intercalating wasdill'erent at dillerent times, and probably not constant any- where for any consecutive period of time. Among the Jews the Sanhedrin decided whether in any particular year a month should be intercalated. Among the Romans Plutarch testifies that 22 days
were added every other year to the niontli of February (which, according to Varro, de Linq. Lat. vi. 55, was the last month of the year). But a more common way was the insertion of an addi- tional month every three j'ears, and as this left a troublesome margin it was corrected into three months every eight years and finally fixed as seven months in a cycle of nineteen years. This cycle was introduced into Athens by Meton the astronomer in 432, but found its way only gradually into general practice. Popularly the year must always have been viewed as divided into 12 montus (Rev 22-).
6. The month.— Throughout the Apostolic Age the ancient way of fixing the month as the exact equivalent of a comjjiete lunation was maintained. Tlie month accordingly began with the appearance of the moon in its first phase, and ended with its reappearance in the same phase the next time. Within the New Testament months are mentioned generally, not with precise reference to their rela- tions to one another in the calendar, but as an indication and a measure of time in the terms of the fraction of a year (Lk l^'-se. sisj i„ ^^j.^^ jt, is probable that the usage is not meant to be minutely precise since the mention of months is invariably in threes (Ac 7=" 19" 20" 28", but once in twice three — six, Ac 18").